Quality Assurance Lead Test Analyst

On behalf of Homes England, we are looking for a Quality Assurance Lead Test Analyst (Inside IR35) for a 6 Month Remote contract with ad hoc travel to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Coventry and Newcastle offices.

Role purpose:

The role of the Quality Assurance Testing Lead Analyst is to undertake manual/automated testing and test engineering on systems being developed and in production support. This is a technical role that requires proficiency in a wide range of skills.

As a QAT Lead Analyst you will have extensive experience of testing and operating highly usable and accessible services that meet the needs of their users. You will be skilled in both manual and automated testing and have deep technical knowledge about digital solutions, browser technologies, APIs and databases, the operation of test environments, test data and deployment tools. You will adapt to the needs of your multi-disciplinary team, will be pragmatic, and will have the experience needed to propose effective test solutions and to solve complex problems.

Job accountabilities and responsibilities:
. You will deliver and support complex digital services as part of a multi-disciplinary team, working to user needs, service design expectations and agreed priorities
. You will appropriately test security, compatibility, accessibility, performance, capacity, recovery, and other non-functional design elements of our services, protecting our customer data and ensuring we deliver high quality services to our customers
. You will define and assure test practices and coding standards used within our knowledgebase and code repositories, peer reviewing work done by others on the team, and work done by our suppliers to ensure it is of a good quality
. You will define and execute functional and non-functional test plans that help your team understand the quality of delivery of our services and work with them to ensure that the services we provide meet our customers' expectations
. You will apply your problem-solving skills both to the resolution of issues with the services you support, and to continuously improve on the working practices within your team
. You will evaluate and develop our testing standards, tools, and best practices, leading on the adoption of automation techniques and the establishment of sustainable, efficient, and re-usable test approaches across the community of practice
. You will mentor and coach more junior colleagues within your multi-disciplinary team, leading by example and helping them in their work. You will line manage and develop a small number of more junior software engineers where there is a need to do so
. In keeping with Homes England values and as a senior member of technical staff within Digital you will embody our spirit of collaboration and support colleagues by undertaking other reasonable duties when required to ensure we provide excellent services to our customers

Key skills and knowledge:
. Functional testing. You can advise on up-to-date functional testing techniques. You know how to assess and peer-review the work of others. You can coach and mentor others. You can write test approaches for major projects and provide guidance on risk approaches. You can devise new test techniques and provide recommendations.
. Non-functional testing. You can advise on up-to-date non-functional testing techniques. You know how to assess and peer-review the work of others. You can coach and mentor others. You know how to write non-functional test approaches for major projects and provide guidance on risk approaches. You can devise new non-functional test techniques and provide recommendations.
. Technical breadth. You can act as an advisor with a strategic understanding of IT trends and technologies. You can write and publish papers. You know about emerging tools and techniques. You can set up frameworks based on the needs of the team. You know how to work across different tools and software languages.
. Test analysis. You can think 'outside the box', ask the right questions and critically evaluate and communicate findings to a larger team. You know how to lead investigative work into problems and opportunities in existing processes. You can drive the collection of information and creation of recommendations for improvements. You can absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to determine solutions.

Key experience
. Expertise in test strategy development, planning, and execution.
. Align testing methodologies with organizational standards and service design expectations.
. Ensure quality delivery by enforcing well-defined acceptance criteria and test coverage.
. Lead the design, setup, and execution of automated regression testing using Selenium and C#.
. Plan and execute non-functional testing, including performance testing using JMeter, and compatibility testing.
. Integrate automation test into CI/CD pipelines to ensure continuous quality improvement.
. Utilize Azure DevOps (ADO) to track work items, review test plans, and generate reports supporting QA activities.
. Coordinate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to meet testing goals and project deadlines.
. Mentor, guide, and support QA team members, fostering knowledge sharing.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".